43
Farrell murderer sentenced to another long prison term for Michigan murder
By Ed Runyan
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
Shawn Jarrett, 51, a Farrell, Pa., native who killed his elderly Farrell neighbor in 1982 and spent 30 years in prison, has been sentenced to up to 90 years in prison for a Michigan slaying.
Jarrett was convicted in September in the death of Berta Reyes, 40, a mother of four who worked at the same greenhouse with Jarrett in Walker, Mich., and was found dead at a construction site in May 2014 after she disappeared from the greenhouse in April 2014.
Kent County Judge George Buth sentenced Jarrett to 60 to 90 years in prison earlier this month for the murder.
Jarrett also was sentenced to two life sentences and at least 70 years in prison in March for raping and robbing an 85-year-old woman in Grandville, Mich., in June 2014.
Michigan television station WZZM cited court testimony indicating that a pulverized cellphone belonging to Reyes and her DNA were found in Jarrett’s car.
Jarrett was released from prison in Pennsylvania at the end of 2012 after serving his full 30-year sentence for killing his elderly neighbor and robbing a Sharon woman in 1982.
Pennsylvania officials warned Howland police in late 2012 that Jarrett was being released and was going to live with his parents on Dawson Drive in Howland.
Howland Police Chief Paul Monroe then warned the public, saying Jarrett had “violent, homicidal tendencies” and that people should be on alert to his presence in the community. Monroe said Howland police officers patrolled Dawson Drive on every shift because of Jarrett.
Monroe said he didn’t believe he could legally reveal the comments from a Pennsylvania prison psychiatrist, who said of Jarrett just prior to his release: “He will kill again. It’s just a matter of time.”
Police in Michigan, however, released that information in court documents while seeking a search warrant relating to Jarrett in the Reyes murder.
Jarrett killed his next-door neighbor, Mary Sposito, 64, in March 1982 at her house on Roemer Boulevard, Farrell, where she lived alone. Sposito was the widow of the former Farrell police chief. Jarrett also attacked a woman, 58, two months later in her Sharon home.
Monroe said he didn’t know how long Jarrett remained at his parents’ house, but he learned sometime later that Jarrett had gone to California after leaving Trumbull County.
Monroe said he wishes western Michigan authorities had been given the same information about Jarrett’s history Howland officials got, but “we had no idea where he had gone.”